The Sugar Pine Foundation is hosting a Garden Party Fundraiser at the Hyatt! Join them for a night of pampering at the Spa! The Hyatt will offer mini treatments in the pool area and have a bar set up with food. The first 150 attendees to bring garden gloves will get a free bag of goodies! There will also be a raffle and a silent auction.

The California Air Resources Board, California Energy Commission, and California Public Utilities Commission invite you to a Joint Agency Symposium, which will include an examination of natural gas system methane emissions and a discussion of the options to reduce California emissions.

Job Announcements & Volunteer Opportunities

Becoming a staff member of the Sierra Nevada Alliance enables you to do great things for the environment while you grow professionally and attain tangible benefits. The SNAP Administrative Assistant provides support to the SNAP Program and the Sierra Nevada Alliance, starting with part time hours, ~32 per week.

Friends of the Inyo relies on a small staff and volunteers to help care for and protect the Eastern Sierra's public lands. They are currently seeking an Operations Manager, a Forest Wilderness Intern, and Summer Field Positions.

The mission of the Watershed Stewards Program (WSP) is to conserve, restore, and enhance anadromous (salmon and trout-bearing) watersheds for future generations by linking education with high quality scientific practices.

Participate in the June 21st-22nd training program to become a docent for the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Training includes general Lake Tahoe information, environmental issues, geology, history of research, state of the lake, ecology and food web, and prepares volunteer docents to share their love of Lake Tahoe at the UC Davis science education centers in Incline Village and Tahoe City.

The Tahoe Environmental Research Center of Incline Village, NV seeks an Associate Director, to provide leadership, administration and program management to support the center’s mission initiating interactions with agencies operating in the Tahoe Basin.

Several positions are now available with the USFS, including 2 Biological Science Technician (GS-05 & GS-07) in Nevada City, 2 West Zone Environmental Coordinators (GS-7/9/11) in Modoc National Forest, and several temporary positions in the Malheur National Forest!

For more information and job descriptions, please search for these vacancies on USA Jobs!

The Wallace Global Fund supports activities and movements that are global or national in scope. We will consider significant local or regional initiatives with the potential to leverage broader national or global impact. Proposals can be for either core or project-specific support.

This CA Natural Resources Agency program offers grants to local, state, and federal governmental agencies as well as nonprofit organizations for projects to mitigate environmental impacts caused by new or modified state transportation facilities. Grants are generally limited to $500,000 for development projects and up to $1,000,000 for acquisition projects.

Highlight

US Forest Service:

Inyo, Sequoia and Sierra National Forests Land Management Plans Revision

The US Forest Service has released the draft forest plan revisions and draft environmental impact statements for the Inyo, Sequoia, and Sierra National Forests.

Draft Forest Plans and EIS

On May 19th, the Forest Service electronically submitted the DEIS and draft plans to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register, meeting EPA's requirement for EIS filing. The federal register notice is anticipated to be published on May 27, 2016, and will initiate a 90-day public comment period on the draft Forest Plans and DEIS.

As part of the Federal Register Notice publication process, the documents are publically available, providing advanced access. More information and a formal announcement will be available at the start of the 90-day public comment period. The official 90-day timeline for submitting comments to the agency is determined by the publication date in the Federal Register, which is expected to be May 27, 2016.

Sierra Forest Legacy and Sierra Nevada Alliance

The Sierra Nevada Alliance has been involved in this comment process, working with a group lead by the Sierra Forest Legacy. On the Sierra Forest Legacy organization website, you will find comments and letters they have provided recently to the Forest Service relating to the early adopter plan revisions (Inyo, Sequoia, and Sierra National Forests).

Sierra Nevada Alliance is engaging on Wilderness and Wild and Scenic designations and is hoping to help mobilize the grassroots to get involved in this ongoing process that will shape the future of the majority of the land holdings throughout the Sierra.

Stay tuned and engaged. For more information contact the USFS Planning Team Leader, 707-562-9121, or reach out to the Sierra Forest Legacy.

If you would like to support the Sierra Nevada Alliance Initiatives, please click here to contribute to our funding.

The policy of the Resource is to include articles that appear in local or
major media outlets relevant to Sierra conservation. We also include news
releases, event notices, funding opportunities and job announcements sent to
us from our Member Groups and friends. If you as a reader disagree with the
content of a submission we encourage you to submit a letter to the editor of
the issuing publication to reach the broader audience who read the article.
You are welcome to forward your letter to the editor to the Alliance for
inclusion in our new "Letters to the Resource" section. We also invite Letters
to the Resource to be directly submitted on any article with which you're
concerned.

Newsletter contents prepared by Kate Gladstein.
If you have articles, events or announcements that you would like included in this newsletter or if you have feedback,
please email Kate!.

Recent News

Sierra Link: Last month was the hottest April on record globally – and the seventh month in a row to have broken global temperature records. It makes three months in a row that the monthly record has been broken by the largest margin ever. When the string of record-smashing months started in February, scientists began talking about a “climate emergency”. This doesn't look good for 2016, or the Sierra.

Sierra Link: Oxygen-depleted oceans have preceded many mass extinctions in Earth’s past, including the worst one of all 252 million years ago. This interesting article explains ocean acidification due to excess CO2 in the atmosphere, what is happening, and what this means for us.

Sierra Link: The Sierra Meadows Partnership wants to develop a protocol to quantify greenhouse gas emissions in Sierra meadows and to establish related carbon credits that could be transacted in a carbon market. Funds raised through selling the credits could support meadow restoration and management.

Sierra Link: Woodland areas that regrow after forest fires, logging operations or other disturbances can sequester huge amounts of carbon dioxide and they play an unexpectedly valuable role in mitigating climate change, according to a study by 60 scientists from across the globe. This has interesting potential for the Sierra and our recent fire history.

Sierra Link: Memorial Day is next week, and due to the unprecedented number of hazard trees present and the associated risk to the public, the Sierra National Forest (SNF) will delay the opening of a number of campgrounds.

Sierra Link: Water levels at Yosemite National Park appear to have rebounded from four years of drought and we're now in a window of peak waterfall conditions. USGS records indicate that water levels are hitting peaks not met since 2012.

Sierra Link: The Central Sierra Historical Society & Museum celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and opened for the season last weekend. While it includes a more traditional “museum”, its prize jewels include free tours of Shaver Lake on a wooden boat and interactive treasures sprinkled throughout the 20-acre property.

Sierra Link: According to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, agriculture devours 80% of the developed water, much in the semiarid San Joaquin Valley's thirsty nut orchards, and accounting for only 2% of the state’s gross product. The essence of Governor Brown's new long-term drought policy asks a lot of residential users while ignoring corporate agriculture.

Sierra Link: El Niño's rains didn't end California's drought, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged Senate colleagues last Tuesday to hurry and find a compromise on a package of bills to address the water crisis in the West. Feinstein's proposed bill includes short-term drought relief for California and long-term water projects for more than a dozen Western states.

Sierra Link: In 2014, USDA's Wildlife Services killed 61,702 coyotes, despite the agency's extensive research on nonlethal alternatives, such as alarms which are seldom implemented. In April, Mendocino County joined Sonoma and Marin counties in cancelling or suspending contracts with the agency, and six environmental groups have sued. This will be the first lawsuit of this kind.

Sierra Link: On May 9, 2016, President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act into law, officially making the American bison the national mammal of the United States. This majestic animal joins the ranks of the Bald Eagle as the official symbol of our country -- and much like the eagle, it’s one of the greatest conservation success stories of all time.

Sierra Link: Lead poisoning in children is underreported nationwide, and the West’s lack of data is particularly glaring. We worry about mercury in the Sierra and beyond, but there may be another heavy metal of concern.

Sierra Link: New floating solar photovoltaic arrays seem to possess major advantages over their land-based counterparts - they prevent reservoir evaporation, restrict algal blooms, and are not visible from roadways. This could be a great development for Sierra energy sources!

Since 1993 the Sierra Nevada Alliance has been protecting and restoring Sierra lands, water, wildlife and communities. The regional climate change program shapes and implements county and regional resource plans that promote smart land use, incorporate sustainable water management practices, aggressively reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change.